I50 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



upper Kimabatangan River. In Sarawak, they have been found in the interior from 

 Brunei on the north, to the mid Rejang region in the south, while in Dutch Borneo 

 we have several records (Biittikofer), and the upper Mahakam (Nieuwenhuis). So 

 while these birds do not apparently occur on the coast, they seem to be very generally — 

 if locally — distributed over much of the island as a whole, more especially in the 

 northern and central areas. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



There is no doubt that the White-tailed Pheasant is almost as particular as the 

 argus as to the character of its jungle home. Almost all the rivers and larger streams 

 of this region show the former occupancy of natives by the wide reaches of second 

 growth on each bank. Even when this has grown up to some semblance of the original 

 primeval growth, it is seldom that these pheasants are content to make their home 

 here. They prefer the deeper, uncut dry jungle, but morning and evening they have 

 no objection to crossing overgrown, or even cleared areas in order to reach the water. 

 As regular as do the big game, so these birds come twice each day to drink. The 

 argus and the White-tail will, however, sometimes return and inhabit such overgrown 

 country if it be wholly deserted by natives, while the crested fireback seems actually 

 to prefer such territory rather than to avoid it. Both the White-tail and the argus 

 require rolling country, and I have never known of one of the former being found in 

 the low, level, half-marshy regions which are the delight of the firebacks. 



The first news of this little-known pheasant which I received on reaching Sarawak 

 was that there was a live male in the possession of an American missionary at Sibu 

 on the Rejang River. Although the few specimens in museums have been taken 

 mostly in the extreme north of the colony — on the Baram and Lawas Rivers, I decided 

 on following up the rumour of this live bird. When I reached Sibu by one of the 

 little fortnightly steamers, I found that the bird had recently died, and after an attempt 

 had been made to skin it, had been thrown away. The memory of the man who had 

 buried it was poor, and after a thorough digging up of numerous plots of ground by 

 sundry Dyak and Chinese convicts, we gave up the search for the skeleton. 



The bird had been caught by the Dyaks two days' journey by canoe up the river, 

 so I went on to the last outstation. Fort Kapit, where I found myself just within the 

 zone of White-tailed Pheasants. From here I pushed on in a seventy-foot canoe, and 

 later in smaller craft up the Rejang, Balleh and Mujong Rivers, and found this species 

 local but not rare, and distributed over much of central Sarawak, as frequently in the 

 low-lying but rolling hilly country as near the foot-hills of the mountains. Its supposed 

 rarity seems due to several causes : its extremely local distribution, the fear of the 

 head-hunting Dyaks, and especially the unconquerable tendency of these natives to 

 instantly kill and eat every animal, bird, snake or other creature which shows enough 

 flesh to make it worth while. 



One can draw a close analogy between the White-tailed Pheasant and the Dyaks 

 themselves. Both are governed by the presence of jungle. When it is cut down and 

 the land impoverished by a crop, the Dyaks move on up-river to more primitive jungles. 

 The White-tails prefer the open undergrowth of the older forests to the dense thorns 



